Often Irreverent, Mostly Rational Blog for Fans of the Toronto Blue Jays. One Day, We'll Be Perfect.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

We shouldn't like Endy Chavez, but...

If you know anything about your good friend the Tao, you should know how much we hate small ball and the scrappy, slappy players who play that game. Small ball is for mosquito leagues. Or tee ball. Or the league-mandated women that you must carry on your co-ed, modified slo-pitch softball team.

It's not for a team looking to hang in the AL East.

But for whatever reason, we kinda can't help but like Endy Chavez, in whom JP Morosi of FoxSports.com (via MLBTR!) says the Jays have some interest. Sure, he's got a career OBP of .312, and slugs a not-so-mighty .367. And for a guy who puts up those sorts of numbers, he doesn't exactly leave a charred path in his wake on the basepaths, posting stolen base numbers of nine, six and five over the past three season. (Albeit in limited time.)

Chances are, we just like this guy because we still think fondly upon the 2002 season that he put up with the Ottawa Lynx, where he tore up the International League with an .858 OPS (and a .343 AVG, which probably matters for a slap hitter.) Also, he sports some pretty impressive numbers in the realm of defensive metrics (how did we live before Fangraphs?), with a career 15.7 UZR/150 in the outfield (24.8 in LF, 10.7 CF, 19.8 in RF).

Maybe the best thing for us is if the Jays don't go ahead and sign him, so that he can remain a hero in our mind's eye. If we ended up watching him for a full season, it might start to dawn on us that he's the Latin Reed Johnson. (Although Endy doesn't run like a girl. Which is an important distinction.)

9 comments:

Chavez was on the last of the Expos teams, as was Jose Vidro - and those were my days in Montreal. No matter what they do, I'll probably always have an affection for them both - but I prefer now to have that affection from afar. Wilkerson joining the Jays pretty much killed anything I ever had for him.

Chavez would be a nice late inning replacement for any of our outfielders and could also be used as a pinch-runner (strong successful SB %). The only real question is how many outfielders do the Jays want to carry?

"While playing in Cuba, most estimates had Ruiz at about 6-foot-2, and anywhere from 200-210 pounds. Now, after almost a year out of Cuba spent working and eating better, Ruiz is up to almost 230 pounds, according to agent Joel Bello.

"Ruiz is a David Ortiz- looking dude," said one Latin American scouting director.

Added Bello: "Due to the work he has put into his body and his natural abilities, Ruiz has become a prototypical power hitter...

Though Ruiz has always had a thick body type, he's never been considered a true power hitter. During the 2007-08 season, Ruiz hit .341 with 11 home runs and 69 RBIs. He hit 21 doubles and walked 44 times while striking out about 49 times (you can read more about his career numbers here). Last year, prior to defecting, Ruiz hit .305/.408/.467 in 52 games.

His added weight could turn him into more of a power hitter, but it will certainly take away from his baserunning abilities. Ruiz led the National Series with 32 stolen bases in 07-08.

"Ruiz has explained to me that while in Cuba he did not focus much on hitting for power, he worked the counts and hit the other way very frequently," Bello said. "Ruiz understands how much emphasis is placed on the long ball in the bigs and has adapted his mind set...